To claim precision for the adjective "unfamiliar" is to defend an outmoded and oversimplified contrast between American sentimentalism and European realism. Kissinger characterizes such complaints as "technical" and "petty." The review cited specifics, however, not to say "Gotcha!

" but to illustrate weaknesses of "Diplomacy" as a history. Kissinger's scholarly credentials and public stature give his name on the title page the quality of a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval."Noventa por cento dos políticos dão aos outros dez por cento sua má reputação." O raciocínio rápido e o humor afiado caracterizaram a atuação pública de Henry Kissinger.Incansável negociador de crises políticas, afirmou certa vez: "Não pode haver uma crise na semana que vem.Thousands of readers may think "Diplomacy" an authoritative history of statecraft since the 17th century. That will be their loss, for the book does not take pains to reconstruct the past as the past rather than as a source of parables for the present. Kissinger is right in calling me to account for saying that he ignored Harold Nicolson's "Diplomacy." As he points out, his book has a copyright page disclaimer, saying that Nicolson's early book was "quite different in scope, intentions, and ideas." Though I missed that disclaimer and apologize, I would note that its wording supports my general point, which was not that Nicolson had been slighted, but that Mr.Kissinger's book tells readers almost nothing about previous writings on the subject. Kissinger worked very hard on those parts of "Diplomacy" that bear on current and future foreign policy issues.' Budding diplomats and politicians should read it as avidly as their predecessors read Machiavelli' Douglas Hurd in the DAILY TELEGRAPH ' If you want to pay someone a compliment, give them Henry Kissinger's DIPLOMACY ...